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Prussianized Germany 

Americans of 

Foreign Descent and 

America's Cause 



From an address before the 

Harrisburg, Pa., Chamber of Commerce 

September S6, 1917 

By 
OTTO H. KAHN 



Prussianized Germany 

Americans of 

Foreign Descent and 

America's Cause 



Otto H. Kahn 






out 

KCY 12 181/ 



Prussianized 
Germany 



From an address before the 
Harrisburg, Pa., Chamber of Commerce 

September 36, 1917 



I SPEAK as one who has seen 
the spirit of the Prussian 
governing class at work from 
close by, having at its disposal and 
using to the full practically every 
agency for moulding the public 
mind. 

I have watched it proceed with 
relentless persistency and pro- 

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PRUSSIANIZED GERMANY 

found cunning to instill into the 
nation the demoniacal obsession of 
power-worship and world-domin- 
ion, to modify and pervert the 
mentality — indeed the very fibre 
and moral substance — of the Ger- 
man people, a people which until 
misled, corrupted and system- 
atically poisoned by the Prussian 
ruling caste, was and deserved to 
be an honored, valued and wel- 
come member of the family of 
nations. 

I have hated and loathed that 
spirit ever since it came within my 
ken many years ago; hated it all 
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PRUSSIANIZED GERMANY 

the more as I saw it ruthlessly 
pulling down a thing which was 
dear to me — the old Germany to 
which I was linked by ties of 
blood, by fond memories and 
cherished sentiments. 

The difference in the degree of 
guilt as between the German peo- 
ple and their Prussian or Prus- 
sianized rulers and leaders for the 
monstrous crime of this war and 
the atrocious barbarism of its con- 
duct is the difference between the 
man who, acting under the influ- 
ence of a poisonous drug, runs 
amuck in mad frenzy and the 

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PRUSSIANIZED GERMANY 

unspeakable malefactor who ad- 
ministered that drug, well know- 
ing and fully intending the ghastly 
consequences which were bound 
to follow. 



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PRUSSIANIZED GERMANY 



THE world fervently longs 
for peace. But there can be 
no peace answering to the 
true meaning of the word — no peace 
permitting the nations of the earth, 
great and small, to walk unarmed 
and unafraid — until the teaching 
and the leadership of the apostles 
of an outlaw creed shall have be- 
come discredited and hateful in 
the sight of the German people; 
until that people shall have 
awakened to a consciousness of 

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PRUSSIANIZED GERMANY 

the unfathomable guilt of those 
whom they have followed into 
calamity and shame; until a mood 
of penitence and of a decent 
respect for the opinions of man- 
kind shall have supplanted the 
sway of what President Wilson 
has so trenchantly termed "trucu- 
lence and treachery." 

God strengthen the conscience 
and the understanding, the will and 
the power of the German people 
so that they may find the only 
road which will give to the world 
an early peace and in time lead 
Germany back into the family of 



PRUSSIANIZED GERMANY 

nations from which it is now an 
outcast. 

From each successive visit to 
Germany for twenty-five years I 
came away more appalled by the 
sinister transmutation Prussianism 
had wrought amongst the people 
and by the portentous menace I re- 
cognized in it for the entire world. 

It had given to Germany un- 
paralleled prosperity, beneficent 
and advanced social legislation, 
and not a few other things of 
value, but it had taken in payment 
the soul of the race. It had made 
a "devil's bargain." 

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PRUSSIANIZED GERMANY 



AND when this war broke out 
in Europe I knew that the 
- issue had been joined be- 
tween the powers of brutal might 
and insensate ambition on the one 
side and the forces of humanity 
and hberty on the other; between 
darkness and hght. 

Many there were at that time — 
and amongst them men for whose 
character I had high respect and 
whose motives were beyond any 
possible suspicion — who saw their 

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P R U S S I A N I Z E D G E R M ANY 

own and America's duty in strict 
neutrality, mentally and actually, 
but personally I believed from the 
beginning of the war, whether we 
liked all the elements of the Allies 
combination or not— and I cer- 
tainly did not like the Russia of 
the Czars — that the cause of the 
Allies was America's cause. 

I believed that this w as no or- 
dinary war between peoples for a 
question of national interest, or 
even national honor, but a con- 
flict between fundamental prin- 
ciples and ideas; and so believing 
I was bound to feel that the 
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PRUSSIANIZED GERMANY 

natural lines of race, blood and 
kinship could not be the deter- 
mining lines for one's attitude and 
alignment, but that each man, 
regardless of his origin, had to de- 
cide according to his judgment and 
conscience on which side was the 
right and on which was the wrong 
and take his stand accordingly, 
whatever the wrench and anguish 
of the decision. And thus I took 
my stand three years ago. 



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PRUSSIANIZED GERMANY 



BUT whatever one's views 
and feelings, whatever the 
country of one's birth or 
kin, only one course was left for all 
those claiming the privilege of 
American citizenship when after 
infinite forbearance the President 
decided that our honor and safety 
demanded that we take up arms 
against the Imperial German Gov- 
ernment, and by action of Congress 
the cause and the fight against 
that Government were declared 
our cause and our fight. 

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PRUSSIANIZED GERMANY 

The duty of loyal allegiance and 
faithful service to his country, 
even unto death, rests, of course, 
upon every American. But, if 
it be possible to speak of a com- 
parative degree concerning what 
is the highest as it is the most 
elementary attribute of citizen- 
ship, that duty may almost be 
said to rest with an even more 
solemn and compelling obligation 
upon Americans of foreign origin 
than upon native Americans. 

For we Americans of foreign 
antecedents are here not by the 
accidental right of birth, but by 

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PRUSSIANIZED GERMANY 

our own free choice for better or 
for worse. 

We are your fellow citizens be- 
cause you accepted our oath of 
allegiance as given in good faitli, 
and because you have opened to us 
in generous trust the portals of 
American opportunity and free- 
dom, and have admitted us to 
membership in the family of 
Americans, giving us equal rights 
in the great inheritance which has 
been created by the blood and the 
toil of your ancestors, asking noth- 
ing from us in return but decent 
citizenship and adherence to those 

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PRUSSIANIZED GERMANY 

ideals and principles which are 
symbolized by the glorious flag of 
/Vmerica. 

Woe to the foreign-born Ameri- 
can who betrays the splendid trust 
which you have reposed in him! 

Woe to him who considers his 
American citizenship merely as a 
convenient garment to be worn in 
fair weather but to be exchanged 
for another one in time of storm 
and stress! 

Woe to the German-American, 
so-called, who, in this sacred war 
for a cause as high as any for which 
ever people took up arms, does 

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PRUSSIANIZED GERMANY 

not feel a solemn urge, does not 
show an eager determination to 
be in the very fore-front of the 
struggle ; does not prove a patriotic 
jealousy, in thought, in action and 
in speech to rival and to outdo his 
native-born fellow citizen in devo- 
tion and in willing sacrifice for 
the country of his choice and 
adoption and sworn allegiance, 
and of their common affection 
and pride. 



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PRUSSIANIZED GERMANY 



AS Washington led Americans 
of British blood to fight 
- against Great Britain, as 
Lincoln called upon Americans of 
the North to fight their very 
brothers of the South, so Ameri- 
cans of German descent are now 
summoned to join in our coun- 
try's righteous struggle against a 
people of their own blood, which, 
under the evil spell of a dreadful 
obsession, and. Heaven knows, 
through no fault of ours, has made 

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PRUSSIANIZED GERMANY 

itself the enemy of this peace- 
loving Nation, as it is the enemy 
of peace and right and freedom 
throughout the world. 

To gain America's independence, 
to defeat oppression and tyranny, 
was indeed to gain a great cause. 

To preserve the Union, to eradi- 
cate slavery, was perhaps a greater 
still. 

To defend the very foundations 
of liberty and humanity, the very 
groundwork of fair dealing be- 
tween nations, the very basis of 
peaceable living together among 
the peoples of the earth against 

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PRUSSIANIZED GERMANY 

the fierce and brutal onslaught of 
ruthless, lawless, faithless might; 
to spend the lives and the fortunes 
of this generation so that our 
descendants may be freed from 
the dreadful calamity of war 
and the fear of war, so that 
the energies and billions of treas- 
ure now devoted to plans and 
instruments of destruction may be 
given henceforth to fruitful works 
of peace and progress and to the 
betterment of the conditions of 
the people — that is the highest 
cause for which any people ever 
unsheathed its sword. 

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PRUSSIANIZED GERMANY 

He who shirks the full measure 
of his duty and allegiance in that 
noblest of causes, be he German- 
American, Irish- American, or any 
other hyphenated American, be he 
I. W. W. or Socialist or whatever 
the appellation, does not deserve 
to stand amongst Americans or, in- 
deed, amongst free men anywhere. 

He who, secretly or overtly, tries 
to thwart the declared will and 
aim of the Nation in this holy w ar 
is a traitor, and a traitor's fate 
should be his. 



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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




